


The Sun's Fallen Down

by bette (ferns)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Kidnapping, Metahumans, More characters to be added, Multi, Trans Male Characters, accidentally started another long au, autistic characters, dante "loves men" ramon, set mid season one, sorry about that, the concept of the pipeline gets shamed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 09:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11643882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/bette
Summary: In an effort to help a friend of his, Dante accidentally becomes a member of Team STAR Labs.





	The Sun's Fallen Down

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter doesn't really contain any trigger warnings, though there is some heavy stuff that's hinted at. Anita and Luci probably won't show up again (some info about them: Anita is a Jewish pansexual trans woman and Luci is a Filipino nonbinary lesbian. They met at the grocery store and it was pretty much love at first sight).
> 
> Also, Dante being a massive flirt is canon and shows up a Lot in this fic.

Cisco walked into STAR Labs to find Dante making heart eyes at his boyfriend.

“Uh-uh,” he groaned, grabbing Dante and pushing him away from Barry, who didn’t seem to notice Dante’s lovestruck expression. “How did you even get in here?”

“I was looking for you, Cisco! What, I can’t come see where my brother works?” Dante grabbed onto the doorframe to stop Cisco from pulling him out. “Plus, I need your help.”

Cisco yanked him into the hallway and shoved at him. “No, you don’t, you’re just trying to get in Barry’s pants.”

“Getting in Barry-Allen-call-me-Barry’s pants would be  _ great,  _ you’re right,” Dante agreed, grinning like the cat who caught the canary. It faded after a second when Cisco glared at him so hard it almost burnt a hole right through him. “But he’s yours, isn’t he?”

“Barry’s not  _ mine,” _ Cisco muttered, blushing and crossing his arms. Dante quirked his eyebrow and looked Cisco up and down. His little brother’s shoulders slumped. “...Fine. Yeah, we’re dating, but he’s not-he’s not  _ my  _ Barry, he’s our Barry, me and Iris’s, and-and he belongs to himself, anyways, so-yeah. Yeah.”

“And I bet you don’t wanna think about your brother sleeping with your boyfriend, huh?” Dante leaned back against the hallway wall. “I won’t actually sleep with him. I think he’s pretty loyal to you and your girlfriend anyway. He didn’t even look like he knew I was flirting with him. Am I allowed to keep doing that, by the way?”

“Knock it off.” Cisco rolled his eyes, ignoring the teasing tone in his older brother’s voice as he fidgeted with his chew necklace. “Why are you here, Dante? Seriously.”

“I told you, I need help. I’ve got a… Friend, I guess, whose in trouble. Your kind of trouble.” Dante shrugged a bit. “I don’t know how to help her. I figured you would.”

“What kind of _ friend?”  _ Cisco asked as he raised his eyebrows. 

“We slept together a few times,” Dante said with a shrug. “But it kind of fell apart and we haven’t had sex in like… A month. She’s got a girlfriend now. And a problem. Can you… Can you help? Please.”

Cisco paused. “What kind of problem is it? You said it was  _ my  _ kind of problem, did you mean… Did you mean like an engineering problem or a  _ metahuman  _ problem?”

“Metahuman,” Dante said, turning the word over in his mouth. “Like people with powers? Like your boyfriend?”

Cisco stiffened. “Barry-”

“Relax, I’m not going to tell anybody. You  _ did  _ realize that I heard you telling those guys who the Flash’s real name was, right?” Dante cocked his head at Cisco and wriggled his fingers. “It was probably the only thing I got out of that whole experience. My octaves still haven’t been the same.” The weak attempt at humor fell flat and the small smile on Dante’s face fell. “But… Yeah. It’s a metahuman problem. Luci and I don’t know how to handle it, but you do, right?”

“...Maybe,” Cisco admitted. “It depends. What are her powers?”

“No idea. She’s locked herself in the bathroom and hasn’t come out in a week. We’re pretty sure she’s drinking from the faucet and Luci’s been sliding food underneath the door, but… Other than that… We’re not sure if it’s a physical thing or  _ what  _ but she won’t come out.”

“I’ll try to help, but I can’t make any promises,” Cisco replied as he gave in.

“Yes! Thank you.” Dante jumped forward and hugged his little brother tightly. “Thank you  _ so much.  _ I owe you one.”

Cisco jumped a little in place as soon as Dante wrapped his arms around him. “So we hug now?”

“This means a lot to me, okay?” Dante let go of him and looked at the floor. “It’s-it’s really complicated, okay? Me and Anita-that’s the friend-have been through a  _ lot _ together.” He wrung his hands a little. “...Remember when I asked you to loan me five hundred dollars a few months ago and not ask why I needed it or why I couldn’t ask Mom and Dad for it?”

Cisco huffed a little. “Yeah, I remember. You  _ still  _ haven’t paid me back, by the way. Or told me why you needed the money.”

“I’ll get around to it, I promise, and I  _ told  _ you not to ask,” Dante sighed. “But Anita was a part of that.”

Cisco furrowed his eyebrows. “What, did you two go on a road trip?”

Dante shrank down a little bit on himself and Cisco realized that he might’ve just accidentally overstepped. “Yeah,” Dante muttered. “Something like that. Please don’t ask again.”

Cisco looked Dante up and down. He was horrible at reading body language, but… Dante was pressed back against the wall defensively, hugging himself tightly around his chest and stomach while he looked stubbornly at the floor like he didn’t want Cisco to see his face. “Okay. I won’t. But I still want that money back.”

“I’ll pay you back as soon as you help Anita,” Dante promised. “Seriously.”

“Promise? Because you say that about a  _ lot  _ of stuff,” Cisco said, only half joking.

“Promise.” Dante nodded solemnly.

“Alright,” Cisco sighed. “Take me to Anita.”

* * *

A tall pretty woman with her dark hair pulled back answered the door to what Dante said was Anita’s apartment. Cisco studied her. She looked worried and was chewing on her lower lip, but her brown eyes lit up when she saw Dante. “Oh, thank  _ God  _ you’re here.”

“Yeah, and I brought my little brother Cisco.” Dante pulled her into a hug. “Cisco, this is Luci, she’s Anita’s girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you,” Cisco said, smiling and shaking her hand. “So, Dante said your girlfriend might be a metahuman?”

“Metahuman? That’s the word for it?” Luci tilted her head before nodding. “She hasn’t been out of the bathroom in days and I’m really worried about her. Can you help?”

“I can try,” Cisco promised. “And if I can’t help right away, I’ll work on it until I  _ can.  _ I promise.”

“Thank you,” Luci said softly, standing aside to let the two of them in. “Thank you  _ so much.  _ It’s-it’s this way to the bathroom. Follow me.”

The two brothers followed her. Luci pointed to the door in front of them. “She’s in there. Anita, honey?”

“Luce?” A raspy voice said from inside.

“Yeah, Dante’s back. And so’s his brother,” Luci introduced.

“Hey, I’m Cisco,” Cisco greeted. “Do you think you could open the bathroom door? I promise, I’m not going to freak out. I’ve seen a lot of weird shit and I promise I’m not going to be weirded out by your powers. Luci and Dante can even go into the other room if you want.”

There was a long pause before Anita spoke up again. “Can you really help me?”

“I can try,” Cisco said. “I’m going to do the very best I can. I’m not sure if I can do it, I’m sorry about that, but I’m going to try to help you. I’ve dealt with stuff like this before. It’s alright.”

Slowly, hesitantly, the door cracked open, and Anita stepped through the door.

Cisco had no idea what she had looked like before, but he was pretty sure that it was  _ much  _ different than how she looked now.

Her eyebrows and hair looked like they had been replaced with long porcupine quills, her two canine teeth had elongated into fangs, and her eyes were black throughout. Luci gasped, hands coming up to cover her mouth, Dante flinched harshly and stepped backwards, and even Cisco couldn’t stop himself from wincing a little.

“I… I don’t know if I can help you,” Cisco admitted.

“It’s okay,” Anita said, her voice the same rasp as before. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to be able to fix me.” The corner of her mouth curled up. “I think I look pretty badass.”

“Then why did you lock yourself in the bathroom?” Dante asked, clearly confused.

Anita looked at Luci, who was still covering her mouth with both of her hands. “I-I was worried about what Luce thought.” She swallowed and stepped backwards into the bathroom. “I’m sorry, this was a mistake, I-”

“Annie…” Luci reached out to Anita. “I’m sorry, I’m just-I’m just surprised. I fell in love with  _ you.  _ That’s not just going to change because… Of this.”

Cisco watched the two of them interact as he tried to collect his thoughts. He wasn’t really paying attention to the two of them, so he was jolted when Dante grabbed his shoulders and pulled him backwards.

“Bye, you two!” Dante shouted over his shoulder. “Have fun! Luci, try not to get spiked on Anita!”

“Wait, what-” Cisco craned his neck, but Dante covered his eyes.

“They’re about to start  _ seriously  _ making out and they do that thing where they suck on each other’s necks,” Dante hissed in his ear.

“You do that thing too!” Cisco protested as Dante shoved him out of the house and into the car. “It’s disgusting!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dante got into the passenger seat and looked at Cisco seriously. “Thank you for getting her out of there. We have a weird history, but… She’s important to me.”

Cisco nodded slowly. “I’m just wondering why her powers, or whatever those were, just showed up  _ now  _ instead of closer to the particle accelerator explosion.”

Dante shrugged. “I didn’t even know that the particle accelerator explosion was the thing that gave all these people their powers.” He elbowed Cisco lightly. “But hey, you got to meet one of my friends today. You haven’t gotten to do that since, like, high school.”

“Hmm.” Cisco kept thinking about it all the way back to his parent’s house. Both things-about the fact that this was pretty late in the game for someone’s powers to show up (although Cisco was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be the latest) and that Dante was right, he hadn’t gotten to meet one of Dante’s friends in ages.

Cisco had always assumed that it was because Dante was embarrassed of him.

Before Dante got out of the car, he leaned over and whispered the reason why he had needed the money in his ear. He was headed up the steps towards the door as soon as Cisco was finished processing it.

“Bye, Paco!” He called, waving over his shoulder. “See you tomorrow!”

“See me--what? What do you mean!” Cisco jumped out of the car, but his older brother was already inside.  _ “Dante!” _


End file.
